Blurring the categories of civic journalism, entertainment and crime prevention, the "Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator" series has put the Internet stalking of children and their perpetrators in the spotlight.

"Predator" has also provided viewers of the prime-time television show a glimpse at some of the potential child molesters - most of them quite average and unassuming in appearance, and of varying ages and professions - living among us. Humiliating confrontations with the TV crew, and the audacious behavior of some of the would-be predators caught may also be a draw.

"Dateline" teams up with an activist group appropriately named Perverted Justice. The group, working with police, seeks to catch potential child molesters before they can act. Adults troll Internet chat rooms, posing as underage boys and girls, and try to collect incriminating sexual conversations between them and would-be molesters.

The "child" and stranger arrange to meet at the child's supposed home, where TV crews await the adult's arrival. With a decoy in place, the adult enters the home - typically through a kitchen door - and usually has a brief conversation with the "child" before reporter Chris Hansen and a camera crew emerge.

Gripping reality television, huh?

Memorable would-be molesters from the series include two gentlemen who entered the home naked, and perhaps most disturbingly, the man who brought along his 5-year-old son.

During the ninth sting, events did not unfold according to plan - or as close to a plan as there can be in such a situation - in Murphy, Texas.

According to an Associated Press article, City Manager Craig Sherwood approved such an operation in the well-to-do community of 11,000 after being approached by "Dateline" and Perverted Justice, but he never informed the mayor or the city council.

During four days in November 2006, 24 men were arrested at a Murphy home in a typical sting. Some other suspects contacted decoys online but never showed up at the house. Police and NBC crews visited the home of one of them - Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from a neighboring county.

As police knocked on his door and a "Dateline" crew waited in the street, Conradt shot himself and later died, according to the article.

In June, the county district attorney dropped all charges against the 24 arrested in the sting.

As details about the incident emerged, the mayor, city council and most of Murphy's residents learned that potential molesters had been lured to their city.

"They can chase predators all they want, but they shouldn't do it in a populated area with children, two blocks from an elementary school," Lisa Walker, 33, was quoted in the article. She lives down the road from the sting house, and has three children, with another one on the way.

The report from Murphy brings a question to mind: What would we do if "To Catch a Predator" set up a sting operation in the Arkansas River Valley?

What if NBC crews and Hansen rolled into Russellville, set up shop in a random nice house with a parade of potential child molesters coming through during the course of a few evenings? Would we even know about the sting before it was over? And would any of the would-be perpetrators be someone we know?

As satisfying as it is to see these would-be molesters caught - by both police and a camera crew - and entertaining such television programming may be, it does some good to take a step back and consider what goes on behind the cameras to bring these operations together - and at what cost.